Commentary

Staff Counsel; FOIA Manager

Prior to joining PEER, Colleen was an Assistant District Attorney for the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office in New York. She has also worked, clerked, and interned for multiple government agencies and non-profits, including the United States Department of Justice, the Office of the New York State Attorney General, the Natural Resources Defense Council, and Defenders of Wildlife. Colleen also volunteered as a Park Interpreter with the National Park Service at Theodore Roosevelt Island in Washington, DC. Colleen received her law degree from Georgetown University Law Center, where she was the Vice President of the Environmental Law Society and Senior Notes Editor for the Georgetown Journal of Gender and the Law. She received her bachelor’s degree summa cum laude in International Affairs from The George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs. Colleen enjoys backpacking and camping trips, playing board games, and reading mystery novels.

COMMENTARY | National Parks or Jurassic Parks? Conservation Trump Style

by Jeff Ruch | April 22, 2025
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum suggests that technology can replace the role of habitat and intact ecosystems in the survival of wildlife ...

COMMENTARY | Climate Hope & Public Employees in the Age of Trump

by Laurie Williams | April 16, 2025
The Trump Administration’s assaults against efforts to preserve a livable climate are breathtaking in their ambition. What can public employees and ordinary citizens do to help maintain climate hope during this critical time ...

COMMENTARY | Public Lands Unprotected: The Impact of Department of the Interior Law Enforcement Firings

by Guest Contributor | April 11, 2025
With understaffing of law enforcement officers and rangers already a severe problem, the new wave of terminations is exacerbating under-enforcement into crisis status ...

COMMENTARY | Overlooking the Obvious: Red King Crab Collapse Due to Overfishing

by Guest Contributor | March 26, 2025
NOAA claimed that the primary cause of the Bering Sea red king crab's collapse was warming seas caused by climate change rather than overfishing. A new NOAA study puts the lie to that alibi ...

COMMENTARY | Trump and the IGs – From Watchdogs to Lapdogs

by Jeff Ruch | March 25, 2025
The role of the Inspector General requires political independence to function properly. That independence is now irretrievably lost ...

COMMENTARY | May Federal Employees Be Activists?

by Colleen Zimmerman | March 4, 2025
PEER is engaged in precedent-setting work to secure the rights of federal employees to publish and be active in civic organizations on their own time ...
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